Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies.Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Foul Ball Homer + Sloppy Defense = One Ugly Loss

All I could think about as I watched that horrible throw sail past Ryan Howard in the 10th inning on what should have been an inning ending double play was having to sit in traffic with all those angry fans on the way home… UGH!That scored what turned out to be the game winning run for the Cubs.Of course, the game never should have headed in this direction to begin with…

Did you all see the lovely DeRosa home run in the 6th that was actually a foul ball?In fact, every game analyst, radio show host, TV host and pretty much every person in the stadium agreed that it was a foul ball.Even the home plate umpire must have thought it was foul as he gathered the umpires to confer (why else do you call a conference??), but since apparently no one else would grow a backbone and dispute the third base umpire Adrian Johnson, a foul ball miraculously became a homerun!He then proceeds to throw Charlie out of the game (see my photo below).Incidentally, Adrian Johnson is a MINOR league umpire who happens to be on the majors “call-up list” for use only when needed (see here – http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/roster_aaa.jsp).So, the Phillies appear to have gotten totally screwed today by an inexperienced minor leaguer and even worse, Bill Welke, the Home Plate Umpire allowed it to happen.Disgusting.

So as usual, nothing you can do but move on and try to win the game from there.That brings us to the 10th inning disaster.What is going on with Chase Utley?That throw?All the errors of late?Well, let me give a fun theory on this…apparently, he needs a new seamstress and is just too kind to say so.You see, in pre-game warm-ups, he spent a great deal of time fussing over the tightness of his pants.He pulled and yanked and stretched the fabric and grimaced over the obvious discomfort.Take a look:

So clearly, someone needs to either get him a new seamstress or buy the man a pair of pants that fit him!Because obviously he cannot play in this condition with certain body parts feeling so “crowded.”This is a fashion 911 people!Someone please help him or so help me, I will run onto the field and rip those pants right off of him myself!Oh, sorry, the inner voice sometimes escapes in print… :o)

At any rate, back to the horrible throw…Even so, shouldn’t Howard have at least been able to block that throw?As far as I am concerned, there were 2 errors on that play.He needed to at least keep the ball in front of him, even if it meant coming off the bag, to prevent the run from scoring.We have seen Ryan let WAY too many balls go flying past him this year (and last year…).And we are paying him how much?10 million dollars?AND he’s batting a .191 with 17 strikeouts already.Well, I am still a big fan of Ryan’s and I think the bat will come around, but can we clean up the sloppy play here or what?I mean, dude, earn your pay!

Well, the Phillies did win the series, which is a good thing!Rumor has it we get Jimmy back for the next series.Sadly, Shane Victorino has been DL’d. …And in other news, I have added a video to the bottom of my “About Me” page.It is a Photo Tribute to the 2007 Phillies team I put together at the end of last year.Feel free to check that out.Talk to you all later!

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